Book Box: readers explore Afghanistan through literature
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Sonya Dutta Choudhury and members of her book clubs in India read six books to gain insight into Afghanistan, approaching the country as “armchair travelers.”
The group began by reading Lyse Doucet’s The Finest Hotel in Kabul, which recounts Afghan history through the lens of the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul over five decades. They then moved on to Taran Khan’s Shadow City, where the author explores Kabul through its urban spaces and the stories of its residents.
The readers also examined differing accounts of a Kabul bookseller. Åsne Seierstad’s The Bookseller of Kabul presented one view of Shah Muhammad Rais, while his response, Once Upon a Time There Was a Bookseller in Kabul, offered his own perspective. Patmeena Sabit’s Good People explored Afghan-American culture in Virginia through a murder mystery, and Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between detailed a solo winter walk across Afghanistan.
Finally, the group read Anand Gopal’s No Good Men Among the Living, which follows three Afghans, a Taliban commander, a US-backed warlord, and a village housewife, to critique US policy after 9/11. Choudhury noted the value of reading multiple perspectives to gain a more complete understanding of Afghanistan and reflected on the irony that many well-known stories about the country are told by outsiders.
